Where in the Bible does it say, “you deserve to be happy?”
Last time I checked, it didn’t.
However, the enemy of our soul is using those words and telling you a loving God wouldn’t want you to be miserable…He would want you to be happy. In doing so, we have bought into a mentality that we deserve happiness and we will do whatever it takes to get there. We will destroy our lives, our marriage, our children and friendships to make ourselves happy. There’s even a perfume out there named “happy” so you can smell happy, too.
Let me give you some truth…
God didn’t allow His Son to die on a cross so you would be filled with happiness and walk around with a smile. He died so that you could be filled with His Spirit and walk in righteousness. He died so you wouldn’t have to experience the sting of death.
I don’t want to hurt anyone’s feelings, but the Bible says that we all deserve hell…not happiness. We should be thankful that God doesn’t give us what we deserve. The enemy of your soul wants you chasing after happiness, because while running closer to it, you are running farther from the Lord.
Stop running and read on…don’t scroll on by just yet.
There is this miraculous and monumental idea of grace. That because of God’s love for His creation, He would freely give us His favor through our faith in the blood of Jesus.
Grace is forgiveness and salvation.
Grace is sustenance and power.
Grace is favor and blessing.
God wants you to experience joy in Him. Happiness is conditional and can change from day to day…but joy…joy is a manifestation of walking in the Spirit and abiding in Christ.
In Christ, is joy. It lasts to the end of the ages.
Being a child of God and being in fellowship with Him is what true happiness looks like…we just can’t see the simplicity of the Gospel when our eyes are looking to everything else.
Lord, let us not forget…
…everything outside of You is temporary.
“The thief does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly.” John 10:10
Happy are the people whose God is the LORD! -Psalm 144:15
